Docker containers can be monitored similar to any existing physical server or VM. By installing the Panopta Agent on your Docker host, each container can be monitored and represented in Panopta individually. Applications within containers can also be monitored with a single host agent, assuming they expose their metrics in an accessible way. You may also run the Panopta Agent in containers to obtain metrics not exposed outside of the container.

Installation

To install the Panopta agent on your Docker host, see Install the Panopta Agent. Once the agent is installed, run the following command to add the panopta-agent user to the Docker user group. This enables the Panopta Agent to connect to the Docker socket and obtain Docker metrics and metadata.

The Panopta Agent will begin discovering containers on the Docker host and adding them to Panopta.

Application Monitoring

Currently, the following set of applications running in Docker containers are supported:

Nginx

Mongodb

Apache

MySQL

Redis

RabbitMQ

To monitor these applications, add a mapping block to your config file that lets Panopta know which application is using which image. This allows you to specify if an application is using a custom image you have built.

Here’s an example with each of the above mentioned applications. The left side is the Panopta name for the application; the right side is the name of your container image.

Note: you will still need to perform the required configuration for each application (if needed). See Application plugins for more information.

Control Panel

Instance Tree

If you open the instance tree on the left side of the control panel, you will see that your containers are nested under each Docker host. Clicking any of the containers will take you to its details page.

Infrastructure Map and Dashboards

Containers will appear in the Infrastructure Maps and Dashboards similar to any other monitored instance.